THE ASCENT OF MOUNT PULOG. 



The highest mountain in northern Benguet which has ever been 

 ascended so far as is known, is Mount Pulog, recently climbed by Mr. 

 Charles G-. Benson and party of the Bureau of Lands. The notes which 

 follow are taken from Mr. Benson's account of the trij). 



Mount Pulog is in northeastern Benguet not far from the line between 

 Nueva Vizcaya and Benguet. Kabayan, the settlement from which the 

 start for the mountain was made, is a journey of a day and a half or 

 two days from Baguio. From Kabayan the party went by the regular 

 trail to the barrio of Lutab. One-half mile south of Lutab they turned 

 oil: on the old Spanish horse trail which runs higher up on the hills than 

 the trail at present used, and followed it to the Adat Eiver. From this 

 point they took a foot trail which runs up the caiion of the river at an 

 average height of about 90 meters above it. After following this for 

 one-half mile they traveled in an irrigation ditch for approximately two 

 miles, then descended to the level of the river, crossing it at a point where 

 two branches, one coming from the south of Mount Pulog and one from 

 the north of that mountain, unite. After crossing the fork from west to 

 east they climbed straight np over a very difficult foot trail to Ankiki, a 

 little Igorot barrio of about four families, at an altitude of approximately 

 2,190 meters above sea level. 



The trail from Ankiki to the top of Mount Pulog runs around the 

 base of the main peak and over the tops of two subsidiary ones, after 

 which it descends to the ranclieria of Tinuk or Tinak, which is about 

 1,520 meters below the top of the mountain and lies to the south of the 

 Asin Grande basin. 



The top of Mount Pulog for a distance of about 240 meters below the 

 summit, was found to be covered with very coarse-bladed grass a foot high. 

 The height of the mountain, carefully estimated from barometric read- 

 ings, is 2,890 meters. Ice five-eighths of an inch thick formed 60 meters 

 below the summit during the night that Mr. Benson and his party spent 

 there. A sufficient quantity of dead pine-wood for camp fires was 

 obtained near the camp, 90 meters below the summit. 



The time occupied in travel between the several points on this trip was 

 approximately as follows : Kabayan to Lutab, ninety minutes ; Lutab to 

 the first barrio, one hour; the first barrio to the river Ijed, one and 

 one-half hours; the river bed to Ankiki, four hours; Ankiki to the 

 summit of Mount Pulog, two hours. 



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